Sunday In San Francisco

Today was a pretty productive day. We bought a x-mas tree from a strange band of foreign tree sellers at the Marina Middle School. We got all of our decorations on the tree, but may need to adjust the star height via some sawing.

Otherwise today was pretty mellow. Matthew is still fighting some mysterious lung ailment that causes him to cough up phlegm every once in a while. He also spent a lot of the afternoon yelling at the TV during the 49ers game. How stupid were the last few plays by the 49ers. Really dumb.

Last night was a lovely date night, and we saw Up in the Air, which features George Clooney. Pretty interesting movie and worth seeing we think. We won't say much more than that as to avoid spoiling anything.

More later...

Thanksgiving

Hello there people. It has been a long time since we last posted anything. It has been a crazy year. We got married, went to a bunch of weddings, etc.

Anyway, this weekend was thanksgiving, and Matthew remarkably handled a lot of the cooking. Kristen decided that she needed to document this with a picture. The apron was actually obtained during our honeymoon at a cooking class we took in Bali. Not pictured is Kristen in her matching apron--good times.

The turkey turned out well and the other food was pretty tasty as well. The pumpkin pie was purchased, so maybe that will be an area for improvement next time. Mom was up here, so that was nice. Mom joins Lauren as the only member of the family who has seen all three of our SF apartments.

We now have a second bedroom for those of you who would like to visit.

O' Canada

After much planning by the best man trinity (Justin, John, and Eric), Matthew went on his bachelor or "Stag" party as they call it in Canada. The trip was a complete surprise, and Matthew could not believe that so many people were able to keep it a secret for so long. Although there were numerous close calls.

The trip started out with flights into Vancouver and a car-ride up to Whistler/Blackcomb--site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The first day involved some serious skiing/snowboarding as Matthew, Eric, and John did their best to see as much of both mountains (Whistler and Blackcomb) as possible. Justin, who does not like the cold, did not attend the Friday ski session, but joined up for some Apres-ski celebratory drinks.

Whistler is a great ski town for any of those who are interested, and is definitely a place we would like to visit in the future. After the skiing and mandatory post-skiing drinks, the gents headed to a fine pub and enjoyed a lively dinner. All the while, the guys tried to enjoy as much of the local culture as possible while avoiding the Australians who seemed to really annoy Eric. After some further celebration, the guys returned home and prepared for the next day.

Matthew was not aware of any of the plans that were going on, but the others had a solidly laid out plan. After leaving Whistler, the guys explored "real Canada" for a while by heading out into the suburbs of Vancouver. The destination was a shooting range, where the guys sampled a wide variety of fire arms and tried to not blow off any fingers. The highlight of the session were the Desert Eagle .50 and the .460 revolver that were terrifyingly large and fun to shoot. After the range, the guys went to one of Vancouvers finest hotels and enjoyed some downtime. Another great dinner and more celebratory drinks were had as an end to a great day.

The final day was mostly spent enjoying an all you can eat buffet at the hotel and exploring Granville Island, which was really cool, and we would recommend to anyone visiting Vancouver. Overall, it was a great trip, which was excellently planned and executed by all involved. Everyone came home livers intact and not much worse for wear.

Snowtastic

Matthew ventured into the lovely Lake Tahoe area for some skiing and fun this last past weekend, and came back tired but excited for some more snow fun in a week when he heads to Mammoth. Kristen hates the snow and cold weather, so she is not too upset about missing out on the skiing fun.

Kristen will be having her own fun in the next couple of weeks as she heads down to LA, where Mom will be throwing a bridal shower for Kristen. The shower will be lovely and have lots of excellent food. Matthew is already upset that he won't be there to "clean up" the left over food, which promises to be delicious.

More on the fun adventures of Matthew and Kristen coming soon....

Holiday Fun

Kristen and Matthew traveled to the wonderful Austin, Texas for the holiday season. Our journey started with the food tasting for our wedding. We have selected a lovely meal for everyone attending the wedding and some delicious dessert.

Following the tasting, we went to a rather strange place known as the Armadillo Bazaar--a local collection of artists peddling their wares. From the bazaar we went to the Trail of Lights, which is a park trail that has been greatly embellished by about a million Christmas lights. At the conclusion of the trail is a huge Christmas tree made of lights. Apparently it is really cool to spin around under the tree as both Kristen, her sister, and her sister's finance were spinning around like tops. Matthew laughed and enjoyed the spectacle as they ran into other spinning folks.

Christmas was lovely with good food and cheer. Matthew and Kristen gifted a wonderful game to Kristen's parents called Tailgate Toss. Many heated games were played in the back yard even after the sun went down thanks to some backyard lighting.

Another highlight of the trip was a journey to the Salt Lick--a famous BBQ joint outside of Austin (picture above is from Salt Lick). The food is delicious and you can bring your own beer. Unfortunately, some of Matthew's clothes will always smell like BBQ smoke from now on.

Aside from that there was a lot of board game playing and football watching in the Austin. Overall, it was a lovely time in Austin.